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The Austin American-Statesman reports
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle predicted Friday that the grand jury investigation into the destruction of documents by the Texas Department of Public Safety will wrap up next week without calling any elected officials to testify.
Earle also said (as reported in the Dallas Morning News) that the grand jury is investigating the destruction of documents only, not the call from DPS to Homeland Security.
Steven Hill and Rob Richie of the Center for Voting and Democracy have a piece on the American Prospect website cataloging the problems that plague our voting system. They conclude,
It's time for a representative democracy where every vote is counted and every vote counts. It's time for serious candidates to proclaim a real democracy agenda, and for serious reformers to develop a strategy for building a broad and enduring movement. Citizens across the political spectrum must join to create a democracy that not only works for all Americans but also is a shining beacon worthy of export to the rest of the world.
The Washington Post reports today that the Inspector General is claiming that the Office of Campaign Finance has botched an investigation of council elections. The OCF says, we haven't finished the audit (going on nearly 18 months), so how can you say we haven't done our job. Council members point out that the IG is probably mad because he will have to leave his job this weekend because of a new law that changes the qualifications for the job.
Read the story, and see if you can figure out who is telling the truth.
Newsday reports that the Justice Department has precleared the New York City council redistricting.
The San Antonio Express-News reports today:
The Texas Department of Public Safety's chief counsel testified Thursday before a Travis County grand jury investigating the order for rapid destruction of DPS officers' notes in their search for AWOL legislators.
Bubbling softly in the background has been a recall petition against Gov. Gray Davis of California. The drive picked up some steam (to mix my metaphors) recently when Cong. Darrell Issa started raising money (including making a $445,000 contribution) to Rescue California, the group running the recall campaign, according to the Modesto Bee. The same story tells of a group forming to oppose the recall effort.
The Los Angeles Times had a story today that an ally of Davis is complaining to the FEC that Issa broke the Federal Election Campaign Act by collecting contributions for Rescue California.
Rick Hasen (who first called the LA Times story to our attention) asked on his blog whether this was really a violation of the FECA. I think that it is. Take a look at the post I had a month ago about the comments to the request by Cong. Jeff Flake regarding his involvement with a state initiate campaign.
Remember that the BCRA (2 USC § 441i(e))prohibits a federal candidate or office holder or an organization financed by the same to solicit funds in excess of the FECA limits or from people prohibited by FECA from contributing.
The Sun Herald reports today, "A South Mississippi FBI agent was taken off an investigation into judicial corruption after he questioned a wealthy lawyer's connections to state Attorney General Mike Moore and U.S. Sen. Trent Lott." As the old jokes says, he had quit preachin' and gone to meddlin'.
One of the principals in the investigation, Paul Minor, was the subject of an unrelated decision by the en banc Fifth Circuit today. The Court affirmed a district court order sanctioning Minor for attempting to levy on a judgment by seizing cash from a K Mart -- after calling the media and making some pretty nasty statements against K Mart. The decision is here. (Thanks to How Appealing for the link.
OK, let's say you're the Attorney General and in the same party of a bunch of folks accused of some political crime. What do you do? If you said, investigate the people making the charges, you would be right.
Texas AG Greg Abbott is trying to force Rep. Lon Burnam to reveal his source in the Department of Public Safety who told him that higher-ups in the DPS had ordered the shredding of the documents about the hunt for the Killer D's. Burnam, D-Fort Worth, charged that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office "is apparently trying to find out who a whistle-blower is rather than stopping the illegal shredding of documents." See the article in the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News. Burnham promises to reveal all at a deposition on Monday, as he was ordered to do by a state judge.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the Homeland Security Department is within days of wrapping its investigation into the possible misuse of its resources in the hunt for the Killer D's, reports the Houston Chronicle.
Robert Jensen says, "Feisty Texans a Model For Democratic Party". He concludes:
Although I think the current two-party system is killing real democracy, I don't mind offering the Democrats a bit of free advice: If you want to be something more than Karl Rove's doormat, keep more of an eye on Texas in the coming months than on the polls. Taking risks might prove to be politically effective. And even if it doesn't win votes in the short term, it will win back some self-respect.
I started my blog on 4 July of last year and Blogger served me well as a set of "training wheels." Over the past few months I have had more and more problems with it and finally decided to make the move to another system. There would be times when my blog was slow to open, when I could not get into the Blogger tool to add a new post (strangely, I found that the w.bloggar program could post to Blogspot when Blogger would not open), and Blogger repeatedly lost my archives. I think all of this was rooted in the use of shared server space to host my blog and everyone else's. For instance, as I write this, I have just been trying to look at several other *.blogspot.com blogs. Two were completely unavailable, and two were extremely slow in loading.
In contrast, when I use Movable Type, I can put my blog on any server I want. I used the same company that hosts my main website, Earthlink. I have plenty of space on the Earthlink server left over from my website, so I probably have some time before I have to think about upgrading my level of service with them. I have been pleased with the service at Earthlink.
In addition, MT has several features that I could not easily get on Blogger -- I would have to use an add-on program: comments, pinging, trackback, and categories. MT does require some work from the user. To change the template requires some level of coding ability, but I understand that the MT folks are working on a new program called TypePad.
Harvey Kronberg's Quorum Report has the following on its public website (but the complete story is available only to subscribers):
May 28, 2003 5:17 PM
BAILEY ALLUDES TO SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT IN KILLER D STORY
Will say more on Friday but disputes Governor's office claims
The saga of the DPS investigation into the Killer D’s run for Ardmore shows no signs of abating.
Rep. Kevin Bailey (D-Houston), chairman of the House General Investigating Committee, held an impromptu press conference in the Speaker’s press room this afternoon to respond to claims that the Governor’s office had limited involvement in the search for the 51 missing Democrats.
What was more interesting was what Bailey said later.
"There has been a significant development today, but I am not at liberty to say what it is right now," Bailey told QR reporter Steve Taylor.
Harold Meyerson has an op-ed in today's Washington Post, "Union Do's and Don'ts For the Democrats." He suggests that labor's GOTV efforts have been good for the Democratic Party in increasing turnout and protecting the party's candidates from GOP onslaughts.
The labor movement wanted to bring this type of operation to the rest of the Democratic base through the Partnership for America's Families. Unfortunately, dissention over the goals of the PAF within the labor movement have put the program in danger.
Eastern Shore News reports that Northampton County (Virginia) received an objection from the Justice Department to its request for preclearance of its redistricting plan.
Suffolk Life Newspapers are reporting that the Democrats in the county Legislature have moved to intervene in the minority voters' suit against the redistricting plan recently adopted by the Legislature (and still unsigned by the County Executive).
Judge Spratt also asked for briefs on ripeness, the appointment of a special master, and "whether to push back the political calendar for circulating petitions if a plan is not acted on."
The Christian Science Monitor has an article, Redistricting: the wars get more frequent, trying to put the Texas and Colorado efforts into perspective. Compare this article with this statement by Grover Norquist, quoted in the Denver Post:
"We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship," said Grover Norquist, a leading Republican strategist, who heads a group called Americans for Tax Reform."Bipartisanship is another name for date rape," Norquist, a onetime adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said, citing an axiom of House conservatives.
Andrew Reding has a pithy piece, Beyond gerrymandering and Texas posses: US electoral reform, in the Christian Science Monitor. He points out, as I did a few days ago (here), that the problems of redistricting (gerrymandering, re-redistricting, litigation, etc.) stem from the use of districts rather than some form of proportional representation.
Josh Marshall's column in The Hill expresses wonderment that the Dems on Capitol Hill are not all over the situtation with Tom DeLay. He writes a good overview of the Tom Delay portion of the ever widening scandal.
Meanwhile, back in Texas, the videotapes of the area surrounding the Speaker's office and the Department of Public Safety "command post" during the search for the Killer D's shows the state's assisant attorney for criminal justice coming into the command center several times "seeming to be at least partially in charge of the search operation," according to Rep. Kevin Bailey (D-Houston), quoted in the Austin American-Statesman. Bailey says there and in the San Antonio Express News and Houston Chronicle that he is ending his committee's investigation of the role of the DPS in the search. Travis County DA Ronnie Earl (a Democrat and a veteran hunter of GOP corruption) says, "It's a little early to come to (Bailey's) conclusion. We have a few more questions that need answers before we would be comfortable" in ending the grand jury probe. The Dallas Morning News reports that Kimbrough (the assistant AG) had said in February that he was "in virtually constant communication" with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security."
Go Ronnie. Release the hounds.
The Hill's e-News letter has the following item today under "Omens and Portents":
PAC complaints: Expect Republicans to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against two new Democratic political action committees: the Democratic Senate Majority Fund and the New House PAC. Democratic lawmakers have raised restricted hard-money funds for these PACs to give them legitimacy in the eyes of big Democratic donors. The PACs plan on using this seal of approval, so to speak, to convince donors to give them unrestricted soft-money donations. Republican strategists believe this is a violation of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. They also believe that government watchdog groups are failing to pursue a legitimate complaint against the groups because of their liberal sympathies.
I can't like directly to this, but you can subscribe here.
Newsday.com reports that federal Judge Arthur Spratt has refused to dismiss the suit brought by black and Hispanic voters against Suffolk's new redistricting plan. Judge Spratt refused to stay the election or the effectiveness of the redistricting plan.
Minority voters in New Rochelle, NY, have filed suit claiming that they are unfairly treated by the city's districting plan. The suit will go to trial in early June, News 12 Winchester reports.
A comment to the post on Canada's study of different electoral systems asked if anyone knew if the Canadian parliament had a rural bias (by making rural seats with fewer people). I asked my friend, J. Paul Johnston, who teaches pol sci at the University of Alberta. Paul responded and gave me permission to post his email.
First, a comment about the "comment" regarding rural over-representation in
Canada. Most of it is actually at the provincial level, that is, in the
allocation of seats in provincial legislative assemblies. At the federal level
it appears, though not in any great degree, in two contexts. First, the rules
regarding redistribution under which the "independent" [by law at the federal
level and to varying degrees at the provincial one] electoral boundaries
commissions [an institution Americans should take a LONG, HARD look at!!, then adopt!] operate allows them to accommodate "remote, sparsely populated areas," such as one finds in Labrador or the far northern parts of Quebec, Ontario and the western provinces, by legally establishing districts that are
over-represented by having populations less than the -25% deviation from the
quota set for the province [population quota vary by province due to various
special arrangements that govern the federal apportionment of seats in the
House of Commons among the several provinces, e.g., the quota used in Alberta for the redistribution just completed was just under 107,000 persons.] For example, in Newfoundland and Labrador,there is a single district comprising
the entirety of Labrador which is 62% [i.e., -62] below the provincial quota;
and Ontario has one that is 43.7% below its provincial quota. Secondly, the
rules in some provinces [e.g., Nova Scotis] also allow them to exceed that
lower limit in order to accommodate certain minorities by setting up what are
essentially minority majority districts [or the Canadian "flavor" of that
idea]. This was done recently in Nova Scotia to accommodate Black communities
in the Halifax areas [a carry-over from colonial days and the Underground
railway later] and the MicMac tribe of native Canadians. To achieve this they
formed two districts that are under-represented [!!] by being 20.4% and 28.86%
above their quota. And New Brunswick has a seat for the Acadians achieved by
having one district 27% above the quota and another 21.0% below it.
At the provincial level, the rural over-representation that exists stems
largely from legislative assemblies writing the rules so that urban and rural
districts are formally and legally distinguished and then, in some cases,
designating how many urban [or, as they are called in Alberta "single
municipality"] districts are to be formed [even naming the urban centers and
the numbers of districts for each of them]. Hence, rural dominated assemblies
have been able to retain their status as such by "fixing" the urban-rural
division in the apportionment stage by writing it into the terms of reference
given to the boundary commission. Even then, however, the degree of
malapportionemtn has declined rather markedly in recent years, largely because
urbanization has over the past fifty years left most of the provinces [other
than in the Maritmes]70-75% urban in population. Indeed, the urban-rural mal
apportionment involved in the Supreme Court of Canada's "landmark" decision on
the matter in "The Carter Case" [1992], involving the Saskatchewan Legislative
Assembly, was less than 10% off what the true apportionment should have been.
[You probably should get a copy of John Courtney's new Book, Commissioned
Ridings, that I reviewed for the newsletter of the Representation and Electoral Systems section of the American Political Science Association. It's indispensable for detailed
information about the redistribution process in Canada and its outcomes.]
Enough of my "Pol. S. 496: Representation and Electoral Systems" lecture.
On to the rest of your inquiry.
You can get the exact district populations for the redistribution just
completed at the website of Elections Canada [www.elections.ca] by just
clicking on the "icon" designation "Federal Representation 2004" at the lower
left corner of the screen. You have to open each of the ten provincial and
three territorial commissions sites separately, but everything you'll want to
know is given there, including district maps that can be downloaded or
printed.
You might note, in particular, that the "population variance" range in
district sizes in B.C. puts 24 of 36 ridings within a -5% to +5% range, 32 of
them within -10% to +10%, and all 36 are contained within a -15% to +15 range,
though the formal limits allow up to -2% to +25%. In Saskatchewan, the range
including all 14 districts is -7.88% to +5.54% and Manitoba's 14 seats range
from -5.49% to 5.54%. These ranges may seem quite "generous" given the "strict
equality' standards applied by American courts, but they represent
considerable "progress" in other jurisdictions, such as Canada, where the
requirements for delivering "effective" representation in practical terms are
taken seriously.
As for the urban/rural composition within districts, you have to go to the
official election returns for specific elections for that information, using
the district level results. Each poll within a district is designated as being
urban, rural, or mixed, and the population contained in it is reported. You
get that information at the same website; www.elections.ca.
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire has an interesting post on the use of the Internet by Howard Dean's campaign for president.
And another post about whether Dean is really a liberal.
The Department of Public Safety has now produced a complete copy of the video tape showing Speaker Tom Craddick's office and the adjoining command post DPS set up during the search for the Killer D's. See the story in the SanAntonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle.
Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Lieberman will ask today for a full accounting of any help the administration gave to the Texas GOP in the hunt for the Killer D's, according to the Washington Post.
The New York Times has a piece on the editorial page today about the Republicans' disrespect for established rules, such as re-redistricting Texas and Colorado. For Partisan Gain, Republicans Decide Rules Were Meant to Be Broken.
Archpundit at Political State Report: straight from the trenches reports on an investigation into the activities of the four top legislative leaders. The investigations seem to relate to the use of state employees for campaigns.
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall has an interesting story about Tom DeLay and the complaint that state Rep. Richard Raymond filed with the Justice Department about the lack of Spanish language notices regarding the consideration of the re-redistricting bill as required by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. Several Republicans told Raymond that DeLay had told them that he (DeLay) had taken care of the complaint and it would be dismissed.
So, Raymond dismissed his complaint, citing the information that it would be dismissed. Then the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights wrote back that the charge against the Justice Department was incorrect, and that the complaint was being handled the same way all Section 5 complaints were. Raymond's lawyer has now written back and asked a series of pointed questions about the contacts between DeLay and Justice. TPM has the exchange of letters.
Howard Troxler's column in today's St. Petersburg Times explains a lot about what's wrong in Florida's legislature, and probably plenty of others around the country. He concludes, "Can the system fix itself? I don't think so. There is no free market in which a citizen revolt will rise up naturally at the ballot box. The Legislature guarantees its own incumbency with overwhelming campaign money and noncompetitive district maps."
Amen.
Dave McNeely in the Austin American-Statesman reports that Gov. Perry could include congressional redisticting in the call for a special session. McNeely discusses the pros and cons for Perry to do that, his timing, and the possibility that Dems could block the bill a second time.
The biggest story out of Texas today (if judged by the number of outlets carrying the story) is the controversy between the WD-40 Co. and the WD-40's (white Democrats over 40) in the Killer D's group. A lawyer for the WD-40 Co. wrote and nicely asked the afore-mentioned rural white Dems to stop using the trademarked name. Well, the alleged WD-40's got themselves a lawyer -- one Martinez Fischer, described in his letter as "Special Counsel to Rural White Boys" -- who wrote back. The El Paso Times reports some of the letter:
"We are appalled and offended that you and your client, the WD-40 Co., would recklessly inject the issue of race in your letter," they wrote to Pasulka. "We were not aware that your client harbored reservations about doing business with Anglo white males over 40."How could the small band of Texas bubbas possibly dilute the good name of WD-40, they asked? How could consumers be confused "as these Anglo males, although extremely popular, are not offering themselves for sale?"
The Texas lawmakers also reminded the California lawyer that Texas law holds the state immune from suit -- and permission from the Texas Legislature is required before a lawsuit can be filed.
Martinez Fischer, described as "Special Counsel to Rural White Boys," noted that Texas is struggling with a $10 billion budget shortfall. The letter referred to WD-40s' "extensive product offerings" and mentioned the possibility of "an interim study on hazardous effects of WD-40 aerosol hydrocarbons around livestock."
They also raised the possibility of the massive state employees and teachers retirement funds selling all their WD-40 stock.
The letter closed with two postscripts: "Mean letter to follow" and "Interested in an endorsement deal?"
Rick Klau
reports and comments on the fact that Howard Dean has raised $1 million through his Internet site. Rick points out the significance of this because there is less fundraising cost (postage, paper, etc) from using the Internet in raising money.
(Thanks to Ernie the Attorney for the link.)
Last October I mentioned a press release about a study of local news not carrying much information about local and state campaigns. The Lear Center's Local News Archive has released more details now about the study. This is just a statement to the FCC, but it does contain some disturbing information.
48% of the early- and late-evening half-hours of local news watched by most Americans during the 2002 general election season—nearly a majority of the broadcasts in our sample—contained no campaign coverage at all. When campaign stories did air, they mostly were less than ninety seconds long; they mostly contained no sound bites from candidates; they mostly came in the last two weeks before Election Day; they focused on strategy and polls nearly half the time; they focused on statewide over local races by almost 7 to 1; and they were outnumbered by paid campaign ads by nearly 4 to 1. In other words, most Americans probably saw more prime time entertainment on a single night than they saw election coverage over an entire campaign season of watching local news.
The New York Times recommends Two Ways to Boost Democracy to the state legislature -- changes to the campaign finance laws and establishing a commission to redistrict the state after the next census.
"Major liberal organizations, from labor unions to civil rights groups, have begun to meet privately to develop a coordinated strategy to oppose President Bush's reelection in 2004. Their goal is to buttress the Democratic Party and its nominee by orchestrating voter mobilization and independent media in as many as a dozen battleground states.
"All of the organizations are free to accept unlimited contributions, or "soft money" from wealthy individuals, unions and corporations. These donations are the kind that the new campaign finance law prohibits political parties and federal candidates from collecting."
Read the rest in Tom Edsall's article in the Washington Post.
The Washington Post has two letters under the headline, "On-the-Lam Lawmakers -- and a Hightailing Hero. The latter deals with a legislator who jumped out of a window to prevent a quorum -- Abe Lincoln.
On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Lieberman describes the involvement of Tom DeLay and Homeland Security in the Texas Legislative roundup this way: "It smells."
In Friday's Dallas Morning News, an article about Tom DeLay's request to the FAA for information on State Rep. Pete Laney's plane contains the following at the end:
In related matter, a DPS spokeswoman said a Travis County prosecutor has told the DPS that there was insufficient evidence to press charges in the reported theft of a GOP redistricting map. A Craddick aide said that an aide to U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Arlington, took draft redistricting maps from his briefcase, which he had left unattended in a Capitol committee room.A surveillance camera showed that Frost aide leaving the room with documents.
Gerry Hebert, one of the "aides to ... Frost," provided this article to me. For the original accusation, see my earlier posts here, here, and here.
According to the Washington Post, "All three board members of the Partnership for America's Families, a political committee created by organized labor, have resigned in a dispute with Steve Rosenthal, its executive director and former AFL-CIO political director."
The AP reports that a three-judge federal panel ruled on Friday that the State Apportionment board did not discriminate against blacks.
The Texas GOP is able to run roughshod over the Democrats on issues like redistricting because they have a majority in both houses. Was their win in last fall's election fair? That's the question Amy Smith asks in The Austin Chronicle Politics: Campaign Money Shuffle?
I have discussed a lot of background on this previously. Just do a search on "Texas" and look at the stories on the bottom half of the list.
For some reason, the American Express (I think) commercial from several years ago with Jerry Seinfeld saying, "Release the hounds," popped into my head the other day. The Republicans thought they would release the hounds on the Killer D's when they fled from the House two weeks ago. Now, it seems that the hounds have been released on them. Let's go over the investigations, admissions, etc.
First, Tom DeLay admitted that he had called the FAA and the Justice Department in an effort to track the missing Democrats. See the
Washington Post.
Second, a grand jury in Travis County is investigating the Department of Public Safety's destruction of the documents relating to the search for the Killer D's. See the story in the San Antonio Express-News.
Third, the Department of Homeland Security is investigating wehter a DPS employee broke the law by asking DHS for help in finding the plane on Rep. Pete Laney. See the story in the Austin American-Statesman.
Fourth, Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta has ordered a review of the Federal Aviation Administration's help to DeLay in finding the Laney plane. DeLay says it was publically available information. See the story in the Longview News-Journal.
Cong. Mark Udall (D-Ut) has moved to intervene in the Attorney General's suit against the Secretary of State over the new congressional redistricting plan. Rep. Udall asks to be made the principal plaintiff if the Supreme Court decides that the AG cannot maintain the suit. See Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post. On Thursday, the Supreme Court refused to dismiss the AG's suit, but did give him 30 days to explain why he is suing his usual client, the Secretary of State, According to the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News.
For more on the "what did they know and when did they know it" story, see this from the Denver Post.
To add a bit of humor to the situation, read Bob Ewegen's column in the Post. The first part is about a sex club, so just avert your eyes till you get to the subhead "OOOUWW, OUCH, ARRRGHHH!" where the fun commences. (I don't know what the part about the sex club said because I averted my eyes.) My favorite line: "We are eighteen, you are seventeen, you are gonna get screwed."
David R. Fine of Kelly|Haglund|Garnsey+Kahn LLC has kindly sent me a copy of the amended complaint his firm filed in the private Colorado redistricting suit. I have placed a copy of it here. (Please note that I have not modified the document in any way. The strange paragraph numbering was in the document I received.)
I have switched from Blogger to Movable Type (which is running on my main website). Bear with me while I get the bugs out. I plan on keeping the Blogger site going for a while just for the one or two people who might actually want to check one of the old messages through a permanent link. I should have all the old messages on this site within a few days.
Honolulu attorney Edward Y.C. Chun has been charged with assising a corporation in reimbursing contributions made by three employees to the campaign of Mayor Jeremy Harris, according to the Honolulu Advertiser.
Cong. Ernie Fletcher won the Republican primary for governor with 57% of the vote. State Rep. Steve Nunn, who tried to have Fletcher removed from the ballot, received 13%. Nunn claimed that Fletcher was disqualified by the removal of his running mate Hunter Bates on the grounds that Bates had not met the 7-year residency requirement. See the story in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The Justice Department has precleared the Louisiana House redistricting plan, according to the Associated Press.
Here is a more complete story from Newsday on the state appellate decision Monday to allow some city council members to serve 10 years instead of the "two terms" provided in a voter-approved referendum. The City Council had amended the law to allow members forced to serve a two-year term after redistricting to serve that term plus two 4-year terms.
Rick Hasen has a post on his Election Law blog about the publication of the discussion paper, "Renewing Democracy:
Debating Electoral Reform in Canada." I thought that I had mentioned that report months ago, but can't find it.
Those interested in true reform of the electoral system would do well to review this report. I'm currently having a good time blogging about the efforts of the GOP to redo the congressional districts in Texas and Colorado to give themselves an advantage. If some sort of proportional system were used, the incentive or opportunity to gerrymander would vanish. For instance, if Alabama used the system called Additonal Member System in Scotland and Mixed-Member Proportional Voting in New Zealand, we could scrap our 7 congressional districts and replace them with 4 districts. Each would elect one member of Congress using the same system we do now. In addition, each voter would have a second vote to cast for a party. If the Republicans got about 5/7 of the statewide "party-choosing" vote, they would get 5 members of the total delegation; if they had won 3 of the 4 districts seats, they would get two elected from their statewide list. If they had won only 2 district seats, they would get all three of the statewide seats. What's the point in gerrymandering to screw the other party, if the other party is going to get a fair share of the seats no matter how gerrymandered the system?
Note: This Additional Member System is used in Germany, but I don't remember the German term for it.